There is a god in the sky

Chapter 135 The Mystery of the Dock 2

Shen Lan turned and walked towards the second floor, this time taking the stairs directly and deliberately making her footsteps louder.

"Creak, creak..." The sound was especially loud in the darkness.

"Who's walking so noisily? Can you please keep your voice down?" someone complained.

"Ugh, this is so annoying. I should have brought two buckets up here, so I wouldn't have to go downstairs to pee."

As Shen Lan reached the second-floor stairwell, she saw the official sitting on the ground with his head tilted to the side.

She then remembered that Xiao Ji had arranged for someone to be on night duty, but he was asleep.

No, this person's posture is wrong!

She crouched down and nudged the officer, finding his body cold and motionless on the ground.

died!

She shouted, "Help! Help!"

Her voice instantly startled everyone awake.

"What's going on? Whose voice is that?"

"It looks like Miss Shen... What's wrong?"

"Go and have a look!"

Suiying was the first to reach Shen Lan. He lit a torch and put it into Shen Lan's hand.

"Take it."

Although Shen Lan is a coroner and not afraid of corpses, she is still afraid of the feeling that the murderer is right next to her.

The heat of the fire made her feel much better.

She watched as Suiying turned over the body of the official and recognized the man. He seemed to be called Xiao Yi, a shy and timid young man.

Many people gathered around, including Xiao Ji.

"Xiao Yi is dead? What happened?"

"Wasn't he on guard duty for the second half of the night? How did he die?"

Xiao Ji calmly instructed, "Don't make a sound! Keep an eye on the second floor, count the number of people, and see who is still missing."

Chen Shi immediately began to verify, and Shen Lan told them, "Miao Niang should not be here, and there may be one person missing."

The person who only went downstairs and didn't go back upstairs.

She said, "Let's light up the warehouse so that no one can hide in the shadows."

Everyone started lighting all the torches, and if that wasn't enough, they lit all the candles too.

Shen Lan took a deep breath and began the autopsy.

The first thing to determine is the time and cause of death.

"The body is only slightly cool, and the time of death is within an hour... Keep the torch close."

Shen Lan had noticed earlier that his head was tilted at the wrong angle, and now, seeing the bruises on his neck, she understood that he had been killed by someone twisting his neck.

She mimicked the murderer's movements, and with just a gentle twist, Xiao Yi's cervical spine broke.

"Clean and efficient, without the slightest hesitation, it must have been done from behind Xiao Yi."

Some of the officials couldn't bear to watch and turned their heads away.

Some people cried out, "Damn it, who killed Xiao Yi?"

"Boss, we're all here, no one's missing." An officer ran over to report.

Shen Lan paused, turned her head and asked, "Are there any missing people?"

"Yes, all of our people are here except for Xiao Yi, except for the girl that Miss Shen brought back."

"Search the first floor thoroughly," Xiao Ji instructed them.

Chen Shi led twenty officers to search the first floor, while the rest of the officers lined up and stood where there was firelight.

Shen Lan stood up, met Xiao Ji's gaze, and said somewhat uncertainly, "I... before Miao Niang left, I heard someone go downstairs, but I didn't hear him go upstairs."

"Is it possible that the murderer came upstairs earlier, killed Xiao Yi, and then went downstairs to leave?" Fu Qingyan speculated.

Shen Lan shook her head: "He came up here just to kill Xiao Yi? There's no reason for that."

"Is it possible that Miao Niang killed the person to escape, but Xiao Yi was guarding the stairs, so she had no choice but to kill him to leave?"

Shen Lan roughly calculated the time and confirmed that this was indeed possible.

Miao Niang left around the time of Xiao Yi's death.

If Miao Niang really did kill the person, then she deserves to die!

She brought the person back.

Xiao Ji walked around the corpse, examined the wounds, and analyzed, "The murderer is quite strong. Breaking a person's neck is no easy task. If it was really Miao Niang who did it, then she must know martial arts."

"She's a beggar, and a habitual thief, so she must know some tricks of the trade."

"Then why did she leave in the middle of the night? No one stopped her from leaving."

"Go quickly and check if any valuables have been stolen."

Soon, Chen Shi ran up and said, "Sir, there's no one on the first floor."

Shen Lan was puzzled again and asked, "Was the front door ever opened?"

Chen Shi shook his head. "No, we tie a bell to the door bolt when we lock it at night. The bell will ring whenever someone pushes the door open, let alone when someone opens the door to go out."

Everyone was puzzled: how did this person get out?

Are there any other doors or windows?

"No, although this warehouse is large, it only has one door for entering and exiting, and there are no windows."

Shen Lan subconsciously looked up.

Warehouses, for safety and dryness, may not have windows, but they definitely need ventilation.

Typically, ventilation openings for such warehouses are located under the roof.

It wasn't completely sealed off, but there was only a gap about the width of a palm, making it impossible for a person to get in or out, though rats and cats might be able to.

"People just disappear without a trace?"

At this moment, everyone turned their attention to the boxes piled up in the corner, feeling uneasy.

There are actually many places in this warehouse where people can hide; someone could potentially hide in any of the boxes.

Fu Qingyan rubbed his arms and asked coldly, "What do we do? Should we open the box?"

Everyone swallowed hard, realizing they couldn't stay in the warehouse any longer.

"Wait a minute. Even if someone is hiding in the box, they can't stay hidden forever. Let's wait until dawn."

Xiao Ji turned around and led Shen Lan aside, asking, "You said you heard footsteps coming downstairs before Miao Niang left. Were those footsteps deliberately kept quiet?"

Shen Lan recalled, "I was sleeping on the second floor, at the very back, not close to the stairs. I was half asleep and half awake, but I could hear it very clearly, so I must not have been speaking in a low voice."

So I thought someone had gone downstairs to relieve themselves, but when I didn't hear anyone come back up, I found it strange.

Later, Miao Niang got up, but I didn't hear her go down the stairs or see her come back, so I got up and went downstairs.

After I jumped from the second floor, I thought she must have jumped down too, but didn't take the stairs, which is why she didn't make a sound.

But when I got close to the gate, I realized that neither she nor the other person had come out, so I hurried upstairs to check.

Then they discovered that Xiao Yi, who was on night watch, was dead.

"That's really weird! I should have just stayed out in the cold all night."

"Could it be that there's something wrong with that Steward Jiang?"

Everyone was speculating, each offering their own opinion.

Knowing that Xiao Ji was meticulous, Shen Lan asked hopefully, "Does Your Excellency have any clues?"

"nothing now."

Aside from the missing Miao Niang, there was no other murderer tonight, and not even a trace of anyone having been there.

Although they had gone to sleep, not everyone was sound asleep; only Shen Lan heard the footsteps going down the stairs.

Shen Lan even began to doubt whether she was hallucinating or had misremembered the order.

Perhaps Miao Niang went down the stairs after killing Xiao Yi.

It's also possible that she killed Xiao Yi and then went into hiding.

But why?

Although Shen Lan wanted to find a connection between her and Miao Niang through her, she would not stop her if she insisted on leaving.